Regional Development Corridors and Spatial Development Initiatives – Some Current Perspectives on Potentials and Progress
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT CORRIDORS AND SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES – SOME CURRENT PERSPECTIVES ON POTENTIALS AND PROGRESS GRM de Beer 1. Introduction This paper has been prepared for the South African Transport Conference. The purpose of the paper is to provide a brief overview of development prospects, projects and progress in respect of selected regional development corridors in southern Africa1. The various development corridor initiatives need to be viewed against the backdrop of a number of socio-economic imperatives that are facing the SADC member states2. They include the following: • The need to increase the rate of economic growth in the region. • The need to develop the regional economy in a manner that would render it far more diversified, stronger, and internationally competitive. • The need to significantly speed up the rate of employment creation, both formal and informal. Related to this is the need to create jobs that are sustainable in the long term. • The need to create viable business opportunities for small and medium scale entrepreneurs (SMEs). (Particularly in context of the formal sectors increasing inability to generate permanent jobs.) • The need to identify policies and strategies, and support projects and programmes, which will provide a sustainable basis for empowering local communities. • The need to derive sustainable strategies and programmes to facilitate the rehabilitation and expansion of the region’s infrastructure networks and facilities, and also to improve on the quality and reliability of the logistical services provided in terms of such infrastructure and facilities. • The need to mobilise/secure far greater levels of private sector investment and lending in support of the broader socio-economic development process.
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